Vegetarians and 'Complete' Proteins, Redux

A quarter-century ago, the conventional wisdom was that vegetarians needed to have complementary protein sources with every meal. That is, vegetarians were told to have dishes like rice and beans that, taken as a whole, supplied all of the amino acids found in a typical piece of meat. That guidance fell out of favor in recent years, with most nutritionists saying that as long as you got complementary protein sources over the course of a day, you'd be fine.

Now, however, the pendulum has started to swing back, at least for athletes. As Alex Hutchinson notes in his Sweat Science blog elsewhere on this site, some researchers say that, while "complete" proteins aren't necessary at every meal for vegetarians, they're better than incomplete proteins for athletes' post-workout meals. The thinking here is that, in the crucial recovery window immediately following a long or hard workout, you might as well make the extra effort to get complementary proteins.